From Heartbreak to Hands-On Apprenticeships

She said, Renae, I can promise you

that if you work in apprenticeship,

you will find the Rylees of the world.

Beyond the Wrench with J. Gannon from Wrenchway.

Today on Beyond the Wrench,

we're honored to be joined by Renae Chrysler,

an entrepreneur and advocate

whose work is rooted in purpose and impact.

After losing her son in a tragic motorcycle accident,

Renae turned heartbreak into hope

by founding the Jumpstart Fund,

a foundation focused on exposing teens

to hands-on career paths

beyond the traditional college route,

including the skilled trades.

Renae joins us today to share her personal journey

and how she's helping young people find direction,

opportunity, and meaningful work.

Renae, welcome to Beyond the Wrench.

Thank you.

I'm really honored and privileged

you're taking time to talk to me, so thank you.

Well, I'm truly honored to have you on.

As we talked in our intro call,

you can't help but walk away

from a conversation with you,

but being inspired, right?

And really everything that you've done

to turn what could be perceived as a negative,

a negative into a really, really positive thing

was so powerful to me.

And after we initially had our talk,

I was just so floored by you

and everything that you're doing.

So today's conversation,

I've had kind of circled on the calendar

as one that I'm really, really looking forward to

because you're doing some incredible things.

Oh, thank you.

That means a lot, really.

It does, we appreciate that.

So your path didn't come maybe the traditional way

into our industry or into the skilled trades

as to most that come on the show.

And so I do wanna, before we get into all of the things

about what you're doing,

that the reason why we're having you on the show,

I do wanna talk about your upbringing

because it is different than most that we talked to.

What led you to this point in your career?

I mean, you've had some really, really cool things going on.

So it's funny that you say I'm not your typical,

but I did grow up with three brothers.

One happens to be a diesel mechanic.

Oh, nice.

One's a helicopter pilot

and one is still working our family farm in Kansas.

And so funny enough, I was around cars a lot.

My next oldest brother actually used to drag, race his cars

and tweet cars and on occasion I would be in the vehicle

or I was on the street watching for traffic

to make sure it was all clear.

But I was also the annoying little sister

so they didn't really teach me a lot.

I tried to weld when I was younger

and I was really terrible at it.

And they just said, we're done with you.

You can't learn this.

Go back to cleaning the house

and doing dishes or whatever.

And so I grew up in Kansas on a small farm

with three brothers and was around cars a lot.

My dad had a really cool Corvette that he sold to buy our farm

and we all talk about how we'd love

to get that Corvette back someday.

So, so cars have kind of been a part of my upbringing.

I just don't know the mechanics as well as maybe I should

because of being in that upbringing.

So, so yeah, but my background, my education

I did go the traditional college route

and I do have a master's in marketing and business.

And whenever Riley entered into our home as a young toddler

he was obsessed with cars and airplanes

from like age two probably since he could talk.

He would talk about seeing planes

and the smoke coming out of them

and tailpipes and semis and cars when he was teeny.

And so I just knew it was kind of gonna come full circle.

I was gonna have a somehow I was gonna be

thrown into automotive.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

It sounds, I think a nice step here

and it's really cool to hear your background

because what you've been able to do

when we talk about the start of the Jumpstart Fund

is use maybe some of your background

and the things that you grew up knowing,

putting that MBA to work.

If anybody gets a chance to go check out the website,

phenomenal work, very good branding, looks great.

But I do wanna talk about the purpose

and really kind of how this fund originated.

You mentioned Riley and Riley's at the core of this story

and something where as our listeners kind of take this in,

I think you'll see Riley in a lot of you, right?

Like there's just as I was hearing about Riley's interests,

I couldn't help but think about myself as a young person.

And so tell us a little bit about Riley

and kind of just everything that got going

with the Jumpstart Fund.

Sure, so Riley was incredibly intelligent.

I knew I was in trouble when in seventh grade,

he was in a math class that I couldn't help him with

anymore because he was triple advanced and it was great.

But as parents, I don't know if that's a but,

when your parents have a kiddo who's incredibly intelligent,

we were very career college focused.

And I think that was our first misstep.

I don't know if it was necessarily a mistake

because you only know what you know.

And this was new to us as parents.

And so he went into high school triple advanced

as a freshman, he was top of his class.

Just really an intelligent person in general

and very driven, like we talk a lot to our kids about,

we don't want you to work for someone else,

be your own boss, we talk about that a lot

when they're young.

And so for us, we thought Riley can go to college,

start his own business and he'll be uber successful,

like he'll do great things.

And so we told him his job was to get good grades.

Like that was a huge emphasis on our home for him

because he was very capable

and we just thought it was the natural pathway

for him to be successful.

And so going into his sophomore year

after his first semester, his grades started to tank.

And I mean really tank, he was getting Ds and Fs.

And we thought, we didn't know what to think quite honestly,

we were a little lost.

And after his first semester of his sophomore year,

we decided to part-time homeschool him

because he was struggling

and we were struggling as parents.

And so he found a job at a cabinet shop

and would take his core classes at school

and then we would do a lot of his electives

through his homeschooling program, which was his job.

And he loved it.

It was, I can't say I saw a true 180 in him,

but the way he would speak to his coworkers and his boss,

I was like, okay, we're doing something right.

I mean, he would work hard, his boss really loved him.

He showed up on, I mean, I had to drive him

at that time because he was only 15.

He didn't have an option then, he was shown up on time.

Correct, but he wanted to, right?

It wasn't like I was pulling teeth.

I was like, Riley, come on, let's go, you're gonna be late.

He was waiting and ready to go.

And so that was really inspiring for us as parents

thinking that, okay, we're on the right track.

This is something that resonates with him.

And so he worked that whole summer

before going into his junior year.

And then he asked because we were,

he wasn't quite sure what his pathway was,

but he wanted to be in school more,

which was a shock for us.

And so we put him back into school full-time.

And then he would work at the cabinet shop on Saturdays.

And that was probably a mistake

just because he got into a lot of trouble.

He just, I think he still felt the pressure of

mom and dad want me to go to college,

but I'm gonna show them, I'm not going to college.

I'm gonna have some questionable friendships,

make some very questionable choices.

And again, we were kind of back to square one.

And then a great, a really good friend of mine

suggested Riley check into aviation

and his son was on the pathway

to become a commercial airline pilot.

And I thought, oh my gosh, what a great idea.

Riley loves airplanes, he loves fast cars.

Okay, let's explore this.

And so I enrolled him in an aviation program

at Spring's Aviation.

He agreed, I didn't have to convince him.

And he was super excited about it.

And again, I'd like to say there was a total 180,

but it was definitely baby steps.

So he would have to be drug tested,

which was huge for us as parents because he needed that.

I mean, this is a funny story

and you can take this for what it's worth.

But one night I was suspicious that maybe he was regressing

and I said, get in the car.

We're gonna go buy a drug test.

And he got in the car with me.

There was no pushback or anything.

And he passed it.

But I just, I don't know what it was.

It was some kind of mom, something.

Intuition type of thing.

Yeah, I just thought maybe he needs to know

that we're still checking in.

And he passed, he didn't pass with flying collars,

but he passed it enough to where he could stay in the program.

And so I was like, sweet, this is good.

We're making progress.

And that was, I would say that was a pivotal moment

because I think he started to believe

that we were in it for him and not for ourselves

or for college or whatever he might've been thinking

at that time.

And so after his junior year,

he went back to work in the summer

at the cabinet shop pretty much full-time.

And it was great.

It was good.

And then going into his senior year,

he had a buddy that had a sport bike

and he asked us if he could get a sport bike.

So of course our answer was no.

I mean, you don't have a sport bike at 17 at that time

and drive the speed limit we knew.

I mean, I had been around motorcycles

and fast cars my whole life in college.

I remember being on the back of a sport bike with friends

and I just, and knowing his personality

because he was someone that pushed the limits

and he was very determined to experience life his own way.

He didn't want someone to tell him, blah, blah, blah.

So we told him no, but he got it anyway.

And the way that we found out he got his bike

is because he'd been hiding it at a park

kind of in the trees about two or three miles away

from our house.

And one day he called his sister and said,

hey, I need help.

He sent me a text and said, mom, I need Ellie.

And that's my oldest daughter and his oldest sister.

And I was like, what's going on?

He goes, I can't talk right now.

And of course to me, I thought crap.

He wrecked his bike or something happened

because you know, again, mother intuition,

like does he have a bike?

What's going on?

Of course, worst case scenario,

I thought he was in an accident of some sort.

Well, an hour later, I see him being towed

behind our daughter's car on his sport bike.

And that's why, I mean, I don't know.

It's really hard to stay on a bike

when you're going 10 miles.

Yeah, I was gonna say,

that's actually takes some talent, right there.

Yes.

And so watching it was really hilarious, quite obviously.

But again, I was texting him, calling him

and he kept saying, mom, quit trying to talk to me.

I can't talk right now.

And so I was like worst case scenario,

what's going on, what's happening?

And so he pulls in and he's had some,

I don't know what was wrong with the bike.

I really don't remember.

But that was a turning point for us because,

and that's a, that is just a reflection

of his personality too.

When he was determined to do something,

he was doing it.

Like there was quite honestly no stopping him.

And we thought, okay, he's gonna have a bike.

How can we make this livable for everybody?

Like how can I sleep at night?

How can we somewhat ensure his safety?

So we just had some conversations about rules

and I will say he was really great.

He would leave at about nine o'clock at night,

give us a great big hug, say, we'll see you later.

I'll be home at 12.

And he would be home at 12.

I mean, honestly for like the first time

in his high school experience with him

because he used to sneak out

and come home at like six in the morning.

And that's a whole nother story, how we found that out.

But this was the first time where I really felt like

he's gonna be home at midnight.

He's gonna be true to his word

because I think we were giving him some grace.

And so that allowed him to kind of be himself

a little bit more.

And so yeah, so that was good.

He bought a bike, he flipped it, bought another bike.

He wanted to figure out how to make money

and pay so they could pay for themselves.

I mean, his first bike was small.

I think it was a 700 maybe.

The last bike, his third bike was huge.

It was, we said it was Satan's bike.

It was a 1200 Mitsubishi.

It was so fast, so big.

Like no one should ever be on a bike that fast.

But that was his third or fourth bike.

So he had flipped several and he used his own money

to buy them and kind of upgrade.

But you see that maybe entrepreneurial spirit there too,

right of like wanting to,

and something that was maybe passed down from you

in that you are seeing the want

to maybe turn that into a business

or to figure out a way to make money off of it

or you know, turning your passion into something

that is something you can do something with.

I think that's pretty cool.

I think so too.

And I think that's just a reflection of him again

is that he was determined and he wanted to,

he wanted like, he wanted to be uber successful

in whatever it was.

One of his favorite F1 drivers was Arenton Senna.

And we actually are using a quote of Arenton Senna

on his gravestone and it talks about whatever you do in life

and he goes, and I'm not talking about just being an F1 driver,

you will be successful with your faith in God.

And Riley, I'm not gonna say that his faith

drove him to success, but he was very, very driven

to find whatever it is that God wanted him to be

to be successful at it.

And so I think that, yeah,

I think that was a definite reflection

of his A determination to be successful

and B, he just wanted to,

this is his hands-on part of him, right?

Like he wanted to experience life hands-on.

He wanted to do it himself.

He wanted to feel and touch it.

We could tell him something was dangerous all day long,

but he wanted to learn it for himself for sure.

Love that his favorite driver was Senna,

that is really cool.

And then the quote with the faith-based piece of that,

I think is incredible.

And then just the, you talk about the intelligence level

and this is something that it sounded like

you almost had to open your mind to

or shift your thinking in and that,

maybe the traditional route wasn't going to be

the avenue that he was going to go down,

but you still knew that he was really, really intelligent

and maybe just using that intelligence in a different way.

And it's hard for a lot of parents,

I think to come to terms with that, right?

Because I think a lot of times

you always want what's best for your kids, right?

And you had talked about that part of him

just starting to understand that

his parents were in it for him as well.

Like it wasn't just to tell their friends

that he's going to college

or it's, you're wanting what's best for him.

And then as you kind of start to see this,

I've got a lot of friends that are that way, right?

Where they, in myself included,

I was not what I would call a good student,

not even close.

Not because you weren't capable,

you just chose not to be a good student.

Well, and it is one of those things

where I think when you find what you're passionate about

and that whatever, everybody's different, right?

And I think that's,

the more you can keep an open mind to that

and really start to see how talented some of these kids are

that maybe don't have that desire to be book smart

or, and I shouldn't even say book smart,

but more the,

you weren't going to find me

looking through trigonometry homework, right?

Like it wasn't because I didn't want to get smarter

or be smarter.

It was because my interest lied in something different

and I wanted to,

similar to Riley, be working on something

or doing something with my hands versus reading.

And so I think it's,

I'd be interested to kind of get your take there

in terms of, as you're watching his progression,

was that something that at first was kind of a concern

or were you like, hey, you know what?

He's just his skill set.

We know he's smart,

but his skill set,

he's going to apply it to something differently

and we have to be okay with that.

That's exactly the pivot that we made

was we have to be okay with whatever path he chooses.

And I think that he didn't,

so unfortunately in our community

and in our area of the world,

it's college, college, college, college.

Right.

There's not, as parents,

we had no idea where he could go

as an intelligent, hands-on,

kind of mechanical minded individual, right?

We didn't know anything about CTE classes.

We didn't know about concurrent enrollment.

I mean, really it was a blessing

that he even was able to work at the cabinet shop.

And I found that out,

that opportunity just landed in my lap

because a friend of ours was a builder

and it was his cabinet shop that he used, right?

And I just asked him,

I'm like, hey, do you think Riley could get a job

working at Dale's shop?

And he's like, ask him, here's his number.

And so that was just,

I mean, I don't know,

divine intervention is all I can say.

It just worked out.

It's kind of a blessing because you can see him

start to work with his hands a little bit

and see that this intelligence transfers pretty nicely.

Yeah, and you see it

and you can see a change in their countenance,

meaning it wasn't a significant shift then.

I will say when he started working at Tire World,

he was almost a different person.

I mean, he felt what he felt value,

he felt worth, he had his own tools,

they were cheap crappy tools, right?

But he bought them, he took great care of them.

I think someone even in the shop gave them a hand tool

that we still have.

And it was like really cherished to him

because I think it just gave him independence

and feeling of self-worth.

And in our community,

there's not a lot of opportunities shared

outside of college.

It's no fault of anybody,

but our school system is designed

to support students to go to college in general.

It's super easy to walk into a counselor office

and say, here's my top five universities,

help me get one.

But if you go in and you say,

here's my top five jobs,

I wanna be an elevator mechanic

or an auto technician or whatever it might be.

The counselors don't know what to do.

They're like, well,

you could take our construction CTE class,

let me look at your schedule.

And then does it fit in your schedule?

I don't know, how can we get you in that class?

It might be tricky.

Yeah, sorry, you're gonna have to stay in pre-calc

or whatever it might be.

And so that is kind of a flaw in the system.

And we, in our part of the world,

now don't get me wrong,

I have definitely worked with some districts

where it is substantially different.

Where you can walk into a counselor's office

and they say, okay, what do you need?

How can we fix your schedule

to make it so you can be in that construction class

or get into the auto technician class, right?

But that was very foreign to us.

And I'm still learning about it here

within our own district.

And I cannot tell you the number of parents

I have spoken with,

when they talk about what we do

and how we do it in Riley's experience,

they are blown away that CTE classes even exist.

And so that has been an immense challenge,

but also very rewarding at the same time.

Yeah, and I, so I had a very similar experience there

as well, right?

And I remember going into our school counselor's office

when I was in high school many moons ago now.

And having that conversation

and coming out of the conversation,

where you're talking about what you're going to do

after school, and this was maybe like,

I was probably a sophomore in high school

or something like that.

And I just wanted to work on cars.

And I remember going into that conversation

and coming out thinking like,

this guy could care less about me

because I am not going the traditional career route

or the traditional school route.

And so, you know, I think that perception

is changing a little bit just from my talks

with school counselors and with educators

and even just general perception from parents, right?

Because I do think that's important

that they start to understand that

there are changing technologies.

There's changing job demands.

I mean, we look at,

I was just reading through the America's

talent strategy reports and kind of some of the fear

of what AI is doing to a lot of jobs.

And, you know, some of those jobs that in the past

had you gone the college route and really gone,

you know, kind of through your steps

would be make total logical sense.

Well, now that's a little hairy, right?

You don't know exactly what jobs are going

to be available in five years down the road,

maybe even two years down the road.

I've got an eight-year-old son.

And I'm like, I have no idea what the job market's

going to look like when you're ready

to graduate and go out.

So I think people are starting to look

at that a little differently.

I think career counselors are starting

to take that a little bit more seriously.

At least that's my hope.

But similar to everything that you're talking about with Riley,

I had the same experience

and really could get the sense,

even from my parents that at times,

like if they're talking to their friends,

like they're like, well, yeah,

he's not going to go to college.

He's going to go to a tech school.

And, you know, it's kind of like one

of those things where you're like, okay,

I feel like I could do pretty well at this stuff,

but there's always this like,

maybe you don't feel like your parents are as proud

or you don't feel like the general public

is looking at it from the sense of like,

yeah, my kid is going to go learn this skilled trade

and have skills that are very, very helpful

to a lot of people.

And I know I'm not alone.

I'm sure Riley didn't feel like he was alone in that.

There's some cool stuff that you can do with your hands.

There's some things that are truly skills

that you can learn that you'll be able

to apply for a long time.

So he wasn't alone there, I can tell you that.

Now, I don't think he was alone either.

And I think that is also another reason

he felt more value and self-worth

when he did work at Tire World as a, you know,

he was just a loob tech.

I mean, but every once in a while

and you get pulled into a cool job, right?

And we always knew

because he'd come home super stoked and excited

and be like, oh my gosh, mom,

we overhauled the engine on, or actually,

that was be cool.

But when someone pulled in with a really cool fast car

and he got to drive it on and off,

he was, that was really exciting for him.

Yeah, it just made his day.

We could tell for sure.

But I think that he found people similar to him.

And I think it made him realize that I'm not alone, right?

Like, there are other guys 18, 19 years old

just like me that are trying to figure this out.

And they are here too.

And I think he also knew that this,

that was just a stepping stone.

I mean, we would talk to him about it.

We're like, you've got to get the fundamentals,

the basics, because he had no CTE,

no, you know, anything in high school.

So he was learning it based on what he did

with his bikes, right?

And then what he was learning

on a very basic level at Tire World.

But I think that when you're around like people

and you see people that think

and kind of have vision similar to your own,

it helps you believe in yourself.

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Get started at wrenchway.com slash solutions slash schools

or use the link in the show notes.

What was it about Tire World that got him

to go that route, right?

He's going from the cabinet shop to Tire World?

Yes, yep.

It was location.

I didn't even have a connection there.

I think maybe one of his buddies that he met

with his motorcycle gang knew somebody there

is actually, if I remember right.

And they said, hey, I think they're hiring.

And he went and applied and they hired him on the spot.

And that was back when you could walk in

with a resume and just show up

and say, hey, I want a job here and here's my resume.

And I feel like he started working like two days

after he walked into the shop.

And so, yeah, so that was...

Did he get the sense, did you get the sense

he was learning some stuff when he was there

and maybe trying to lean into his passion

in a little bit?

I think most definitely.

He was definitely learning stuff

because he would even come home

and take more parts off of his bikes

than he would normally.

And so to me, that was a reflection of him

being a little more confident in the mechanical side.

And also, I think he started to realize

he could call one of my brothers any time

and be like, hey, I don't know what I just did,

but can you talk me through this?

And they were always super chill

about talking him through mistakes, I guess.

It sounds like he was genuinely curious, right?

And I think that a lot of people

that are really successful in the skilled trades

are the curious ones that aren't afraid to tinker,

that aren't afraid to tear something apart

and put it back together.

And especially like him,

something he's passionate about,

if he can figure out ways to make it work better

or do what he wants performance-wise with it,

there's so many cool things to do

that make the experience more enjoyable, right?

And so I see that in a lot of the best

is they are just really curious

and maybe that's not even just the skilled trades.

I think I've seen that a lot even with our staff

or with friends of mine that are very successful,

just curious and wanna figure things out

and maybe go through and I know even in my own experience

that helps me and my head kind of piece things together

if I'm able to tear into something

that I'm not overly familiar with

or if it's something in the business world

dive into something that I'm not overly comfortable doing

and just trying to kind of just learn it

and like figure it out.

And I think you just,

you learn so many lessons as a result of that.

I think so too.

And I think also you're willing to take a chance,

you're a little bit risk-divert,

you're not afraid of some risk.

I mean, even thinking about you in your career path,

I'm sure even though you,

it was a 33-year-old repair shop,

there's still risk involved with buying and taking it over.

And Riley definitely was pretty fearless.

And so I think for him,

and I think that you're right,

an entrepreneur has to have a sense,

almost a sense of fearlessness.

If you think about some of the most successful entrepreneurs

that we know in this lifetime,

they took big risks.

They were very curious

and they weren't afraid to act on that curiosity.

Like I feel like I'm a somewhat curious person

but I'm a little timid,

especially at this age in life

to do anything with that curiosity

besides what's safe, right?

Like in my little box of safety.

But if you're willing to go outside of that comfort zone,

take some chances,

I think that leads to great success

or can lead to great success also.

Yeah, and I think that kind of leads us

into really what you're doing with Jumpstart.

Unfortunately, Riley lost his life

in a motorcycle accident.

It's so hard for me to even talk about this

because you see such a good kid

and to have this happen is just something that

I can't even imagine what you and your family

went through with this

and to take something that he,

in his short time on this earth,

really kind of left behind as a legacy

is something that is really powerful.

I don't know how to put this into words.

It's very, very few times for those that know me,

am I at a loss for words?

But as I kept digging into everything you're doing here,

this was one that really touched me.

I can't tell you how much

or what an impact Riley's having on everybody

and the fact that you're driving this home

is such a, it's hard to put it in the words for me

in terms of what you're doing with his legacy

and really trying to turn some of his passion

and his curiosity into something that's going to drive

a lot of other kids that are in similar situations

into a better position.

So I wanna talk a little bit about this, right?

And how did you take something that was so difficult

and really make it into a positive?

And I don't even know if I've got a better way

to word that question.

It's a tough one for me to ask,

but to go through something like you did

and to really start to shift your thinking

into how do we make this a positive?

Walk me through your mindset here

and really how one thing led to another.

So I think initially we had no idea

what we were gonna do, right?

We had a lot of community support as in donations

like financial support.

And my husband and I talked about

what to do with that money.

We thought we have a substantial amount of money here,

let's set up a scholarship.

And that didn't seem to fit like a one and done scholar

or even five years over.

And plus the scholarship for what?

Are we scholarship in college students?

Which is fine, I mean, I'm not.

But it'd be the opposite of what Riley was looking for, right?

It wasn't really his, yeah, it wasn't really Riley.

And so I met, it's just amazing how thing,

like divine intervention.

We went to a close friend of ours

and invited us to an Air Force game in October.

Riley's accident was in August

and she was close, like she was a second mom to Riley.

So she needed us as much as we needed her.

Anyway, so we went to this Air Force game

and her daughter was a cheerleader

or yeah, was a cheerleader.

So we went to this Air Force game

and my friend introduced me to someone in Missouri

who was incredibly successful at apprenticeship.

And she said, Renee, you need to meet my friend, Cynthia.

She does apprenticeship.

I think that there's something there for you to do

related to apprenticeship.

And I had the stereotypical mindset about apprenticeship.

I was like, oh, okay, it's construction,

plumbing, electrical, whatever that might be.

And so, but I was more than happy

to meet with her and talk with her.

And so we met, we talked, we hit it off,

we're both old college basketball players.

So we had a lot of cool things

that we had in common and that we could talk about.

And then we talked about Riley and she said, Renee,

I can promise you that if you work in apprenticeship,

you will find the Rylies of the world.

Oh, oh, that, I've got chills when you just said that.

That is so on point as well, right?

There are so many Rylies out there that go maybe untapped

or like just, you know, they don't have the opportunities

to showcase what they are truly talented with.

The fact that that was said is so powerful.

Yeah, I felt the same way.

It was, yeah, it was, it was powerful and right.

I just knew that it was right for what we, what I wanted to do.

And so we set up a registered apprenticeship program

and started small.

I was working in the local district

because I wanted to work in Rylies world, right?

I wanted to work at his school with his friends

and his, our community here.

And so I started to bring industry leaders

as in I bring business owners into the classroom,

like successful business owners

that had amazing stories too.

One of my favorite people to bring into the classroom

was one of those kids that sat back in the corner,

felt like no one gave a crap about him

and he didn't know what the heck he was gonna do.

So he tried college, quit college,

came back home and started building cabinets

out of his garage, out of his dad's garage.

And now he owns a company that ships pivot doors

across the world and he's super successful.

He's amazing and Rylee adored him too.

So I was like, this is perfect

because he has a lot of cool cars.

And it wasn't just because he has cool cars.

It's not just because he has cool cars

but he's just a great guy

and we would bring him into the classroom.

We, I had another friend in IT

that was from the Air Force and he knew apprenticeship.

He loved talking about apprenticeship.

He would come into the classroom.

So I would just bring different people I knew

and people that people told me that I should talk to

and ask them to come into the classroom.

And honestly kids would line up

to talk to these industry partners,

friends after their presentation

because they thought, oh, this is different.

Like these guys have all taken pathways

that aren't just college right after high school.

Don't get me wrong, some was military then college

then whatever it might've been

or some was straight to, I'm gonna figure it out.

I'm gonna take a chance and start my own business.

So kids were hungry to speak with these industry leaders.

They loved it.

And so we placed a couple students

in it's called IT Generalists Apprenticeships

and that was great.

One of them, she's 20 years old,

works as top clearance and with a DOD

and she makes great money and she's happy, she loves.

I mean, of course it's still a job sometimes for her

but she loves where she's at in life, right?

She didn't go to college, she doesn't have debt.

She's doing probably the same job

she would have done after four years of college.

And so it was great.

But I was kind of not taking it to scale.

I had four or five in one that first year

I maybe placed eight students in construction IT

but I just felt like I could do more.

And a friend of mine was like Renee,

the only reason Jump Starts isn't getting big

is because of you.

You have to get off, get out of your comfort zone

and get off this pedestal that I'm only gonna work

with your local district

and reach out to some of the other school districts.

And so that's what I did.

And when I started working with,

it's called Falcon District, District 49,

Thane's Just Snowbald.

They were super welcoming to the idea

of let's get more students out there,

let's get industry more involved.

How do we do it?

What is your vision?

And we came up with draft day

and the draft day idea started very small and personal

but our very first draft day

we had maybe a dozen industry partners

but we placed 12 kids out of like 25

into jobs or an apprenticeship

or not even internships at that time.

It was all, no, there were a few internships

but right away people were hungry for what we wanted to do.

The students were hungry,

education was hungry and industry was hungry.

And so again, I thought, okay, we're on to something.

Now how do I keep growing it and make it bigger?

So we did a couple other pilots

and we learned a lot of the ways that we shouldn't do it.

And then by our fourth draft day

we decided to do it just industry specific with automotive.

And we had a great partnership from one of the dealerships

and they helped us or helped me understand the mindset

of kind of how these guys think and operate

and what it takes to get them to do stuff and to buy in.

Like how do you build credibility

and how do you get them to buy in?

So it was work, but in a good way, right?

And so we did an automotive draft day

and we had eight dealerships come,

which for us that was a good number.

It's really good, it's really good.

We had, yeah, I felt like that was pretty good.

And we had over 40 students,

we had about 80 students sign up

but we narrowed it down to about 40 to come.

So the way it works here is not every district

has an auto tech program.

There's 14 districts here and only five

have an auto tech program.

And then our community college,

Pikes Peak Community College has,

you can do concurrent enrollment from your high school.

And so it's not as if I could pull from thousands

of students, not that I would want to

because I couldn't manage that anyway.

But 40 is a great number for us to work with.

And so after that first automotive draft day,

I mean, I was hooked, I walked away feeling so inspired

like I was super excited.

It was Riley's passion was cars.

I actually relate really well

to a lot of the GMs and the auto guys.

Like it's kind of, it's kind of who I am.

I mean, I grew up.

Feels natural, right?

Yeah, I kind of grew up with that mentality

and mine, I don't know.

It was not hard for me to relate to them,

most of them, it was great.

I actually loved talking to them,

getting to know them and build a relationship.

And so the first one went really great.

The second one went even better.

We got more dealers, we got more students.

Again, though, we still try to narrow it down to 40.

We have more districts participating.

I feel like we have buy-in from all of the districts

with an auto program.

Our third draft day, we just did it in the spring

or in the fall and we're doing another one in the spring.

But going into that draft day, this is silly to say

and I'm sad to admit it, but I went into it saying,

I've got to find the Riley.

I want to find a Riley today.

Like I just, we're always placing students, right?

And we make a lot of great matches.

Well, I mean, we call them picks because it's a draft day.

But I went into it and I thought,

I really want to find a Riley.

There has to be a Riley because I meet

and talk with every single student

that comes to our draft day.

Like I have a very,

and I'm not going to say personal relationship,

but I know them.

I know a little bit about them.

I know a little bit about their background.

I know kind of where they're coming from.

And so I thought, I'm going to find a Riley today.

And sure enough, one of the students

that I actually knew him when he was younger,

he played soccer with one of my kids.

And actually we found kind of two Rylies that draft day.

But I thought, this is my Riley.

I am going to find him a placement.

And I share that with you

because if we look for the Rylies,

we will find them.

They are there.

And sometimes you're finding them

and you don't even realize it, but.

It's so true too, it really is.

And I love how you said that as well,

where you're looking for that Riley.

And when you say Riley,

I think everybody that's listening

probably knows what you're talking about, right?

That kid, like it's very,

at least in my mind, very easy to kind of picture

who not only Riley was,

but then also like when you're looking

for those characteristics in a young person,

when you find them, it's really, really cool.

Yeah, it's obvious.

I mean, you know, you're like, ah, this is,

I'm going to figure this out.

We're going to make a connection here.

You're going to get matched.

You're going to get picked.

We're going to make it happen.

And you do.

And so, yeah, so that was really cool.

I don't know what else to say about it.

It was just so cool.

Well, it is cool.

I mean, it's so cool.

And you know, as we talk about the purpose behind this,

I don't know that you could have a greater purpose

than you do with this, right?

Because it is something where

when you're just in you saying that, right?

Like you're continuing that legacy.

You're continuing to do good with everything

that Riley accomplished in his life.

And I just, when you're looking for that Riley,

I almost feel like that that in itself is something

that will stick with me for forever.

And that, you know, looking for those Riley's

that are out there and having that purpose

and that heart to then say,

I want you to have a good life.

I want you to find opportunities

that are going to be rewarding for your skill set

and who you are and things that are going to make you happy

in a way that Riley was living his life.

He wanted to carve his own path

and he wanted to do his own thing.

And I think it takes some level of determination

and I don't want to say rebellion,

but like as we're going through this,

I think I had a lot of those same characteristics, right?

Where it was, I didn't want to do the same thing

that everybody else was doing.

I didn't want to just kind of go that route.

And so as you're looking for these other students

that are going down that similar path,

similar to what you said before,

you're also giving them exposure

to highly successful people

that have gone through that similar path, right?

Like so many of these successful people

aren't the ones that did everything

kind of between the lines.

Like so many of them were folks

that weren't afraid of risks.

And even if they were afraid of risks,

like maybe didn't talk about it

in the way that others do.

And so it just, you know,

I think that's so all-encompassing

when you say looking for that next Riley

because there's so many good things

that come along with that.

I agree, I agree.

And I also think that when you can share this,

share the vision to find the Riley with others,

I have yet to have someone not want to.

I mean, it's so natural for our human nature right

to find the Riley's.

And so anytime I can get in front of someone in general

and really share the heartfeltness

of what we're trying to accomplish,

I can't say that I've ever had anyone absolutely say no.

I will get, you know,

oh, I don't know if I can do it this time,

but I love what you're doing.

And so, and then helping them navigate, you know,

how to implement it within their own organization

kind of is a little bit tricky occasionally.

But in general, it's our human nature

to want to find the Riley's

or to find that person that needs you.

I mean, we all want to feel needed.

And who doesn't want to teach someone

something you're passionate about?

I mean, I would, I love that.

That's a great opportunity.

If you're a master tech and you have an 18 year old

that can't wait to learn everything you've, you've learned.

Oh my gosh, what a privilege.

I've said that so many times too,

where you look at legacy as it relates in a shop.

And a lot of times we'll have maybe a technician out there

that's like, oh, man, I, you know,

I don't want to be in the bays anymore.

I'm like, I'm kind of worn out and.

I totally get that.

But like at the same time,

you talk about that mentorship piece

and how important that is for a young person.

And I think it's equally as important

for that more experienced person

because they can showcase some

of what they've learned over the years.

And if they have the right mindset,

it has a lasting impact that will last beyond

our years on earth, right?

Like they, I still have some of my mentors from growing up.

I always talk about it,

but a mentor of mine was Charlie Varko.

I have his business card behind me.

He probably died 10 years ago.

And I, those people, I don't think a lot of times

understand in the moment what type of impact

that they're having, especially on a young person.

But it means the world.

Like it really, really does.

And the fact that you can take,

and I'll kind of spin this around to your skill set

and how it relates to everything here is that,

I think the other important piece here is

you had a dynamic skill set before any of this.

And the fact that you've taken that

and applied it in a way that helps out a young Riley

or helps out somebody else in Riley's shoes

to help them kind of find their path

and maybe find their path to a mentor,

find their path to an apprenticeship.

Like there's so much value in what you're doing

and that you were able to kind of reapply your skill set

to something that is probably bigger than any of us, right?

Like I think that's to me,

when you look at your own legacy

and what you're doing in honor of Riley,

like doing some things that you're pushing through

and helping others out that I think

is what this is all about, right?

Like that's what life is all about.

That's what the cool things are all about

and the fact that you've pushed through

this really, really difficult thing,

the most difficult thing anybody could go through

to make this substantial impact on a lot of young people,

all the credit in the world to you

because that is amazing.

Thank you, I mean, yeah, thank you.

It has definitely got,

it has taken me out of my comfort zone many times,

but in a good way, just like you said, like in a good way.

And I love people, but I'm also an introvert,

which is weird because-

I'm kind of that way too.

Yeah, but I love connecting with people and it's great.

I just don't like being thrown into a big room

and expected to like meet 50 different people

and whatnot like that.

But something I've learned too is that

in relation to how we are,

I think we're all innately meant to connect with people, right?

And something that even going back to Riley at Tire World

and why he felt more purpose and worth and value in himself

is that one reason people go back to a job,

even if it's a crummy job,

is because they've made a connection, right?

And I think that our draft days,

whether our industry partners hire someone or not,

they're still making connections that they normally,

they would have not.

They would have not been able to-

Where can you go and in a three hour timeframe

meet 15 students that are auto tech students

and talk to them, share your story,

listen to their story and connect.

And oftentimes I have partners that leave

saying thank you Renee, like I really feel fulfilled.

And if we can provide a platform for that,

then that's a win in and of itself too, right?

So, and I think that's something that

because of just like you said, the future of work

and what it looks like because interfaces are different now

and we as human beings need to connect to people

and that's becoming harder and harder to do, I think.

It really is.

Now I have to apologize,

we haven't spent a lot of time on the draft day itself

and I want to maybe spend a few minutes

and talk about that because it is such a cool thing.

Can you talk us through the nuts and bolts of draft day?

No pun intended, sure, yeah, I love it.

So our draft days are intended to connect industry partners

with potential employees,

whether it's as an apprenticeship, internship

or it's just a job, right?

Automotive specifically, it's for auto technicians,

students in CTE classes

or sometimes we have students that just show an aptitude

for being, you know, for like I can go recruit kids

all day long from Lube Tech jobs

and bring them into our auto draft day

but we don't do it that way right now

but it's not to say that we won't expand into that.

Right now I simply go into the schools,

I talk to students in the CTE auto classes

and I explain to them what opportunity

we're trying to provide for them

and we sign them up and after we sign them

or register them and after we register them

I go back to the classroom

and I say, hey, do you have a resume?

Who doesn't have a resume?

And then we help them with their resumes, right?

And then the fun part for me is the interview prep

and that is where we do role playing

and I make them interview each other

because in this day and age

there's not a lot of face-to-face interviews happening

and at our draft day we do face-to-face interviews.

Everyone will get at least four or five interviews

but I go into the classroom, we do interview prep,

we do a little bit of professionalism training

meaning just because it's an auto shop

doesn't mean you show up in crocs

and a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

Thank you for doing that.

Well, I mean for the most part it's working

but I ask them to dress nicely

like I don't expect you in a three-piece suit

but dress to impress, that's our goal.

If you wanna make an impression

sometimes it's the initial outwardly appearance, right?

And so we, I call it boot camp

but it's like we put them through boot camp

before they come to our draft day.

So at draft day we still do another round of interview prep

so that the day of we can help calm their nerves,

fill their confidence.

So before they even start their interviews

with our industry partners

they do another round of interview prep

where they're just doing a little more role playing

and then we share some questions that they might

be asked and even we throw weird questions at them

like one of my favorite, I play tennis

so I always throw in why is there fuzz on a tennis ball

just to see how they react

but I need to probably do something auto-related

like I don't know, I'll think of something.

Something just totally goofy.

Before you go on, why is there fuzz on a tennis ball?

I've never ever thought about that

but now that you're saying that I'm like, I don't know.

Exactly, but you should hear

some of the cool answers we get.

It's awesome.

I'm like, that actually might be true.

I've never heard that before but I love it.

But it's good, it just helps them think on their feet

and so after they do their interview prep

we break them up into groups

and then they share with us what industry partners

they would like to interview with,

they share their top four.

I usually give them their top two or three

just because it depends on numbers

and how the rotations work

and so they get to go through

and they get three or four 15 minute interviews

with industry partners of their choice

and then it's like a three hour day

so it's a long day and they're worn out.

The students are spent, it's actually awesome

because they're very composed

and it's mentally taxing for them

and so at the end they leave, they go back to school

and then I talk to our industry partners

and I say, hey, I need you to share with me

the top three students you would like to draft

for your organization

and so they share their top three sometimes four

and then I get the same information from the students

and then I draft them.

So I go back, load it in my spreadsheet,

match everybody up and then I share

with our industry partners, I say, hey,

these are your top two draft picks,

reach out to them, offer them whatever it is.

I mean, I know what they're gonna offer

but sometimes it's an internship, apprenticeship, job,

whatever it might be.

So they reach out, I reach out to the student and say,

hey, if you get a phone call from Phil Long,

you need to answer it.

Don't just send it to your voicemail

or if you get a text or whatever,

I'm like make sure you answer your phone

or respond or whatever.

But again, that's also another level

of almost kind of refining a student

and how seriously they are

because if they don't respond,

they just go on to their next pick

and that's just the way it goes.

And so after that, we matched them all up

and then this is the first year we had a signing day

which was so exciting for me.

It's so cool, so cool.

It was, so I think I mentioned to you

how excited I was and happy I was.

I was like floating on cloud nine

after our last draft day.

Signing day put me like in the heavens

because we, it was, first we'd been building up to it

for the last year and a half,

like trying to figure out when to do it,

how to do it.

It's always been a thought that I'd had to do a sign

to celebrate the kids just like D1 commits,

get celebrated at high school, right?

I had my own signing day in high school

and I just remember it being so cool

and such a great feeling

and these students deserve the same thing, right?

So we finally had our first signing day.

It was amazing.

It was, I mean, if there could be a can of cherries on top,

that's what it was.

It was the, it was so rewarding, so fulfilling

and Mike Davis, who I think you know,

he pulled one of my work-based learning counterparts

aside and said it has finally come full circle.

And I think what he means by that is we had education,

we had industry and we had community

all in the same place for the same reason,

celebrating these students that deserve it.

They deserve it.

They need to be recognized.

It was just, oh, and I had a few parents come up to me

and say, why aren't more people doing this?

This is amazing.

I'm like, thank you so much for supporting me.

And it was just, and for me it came,

when I had a couple moms come up to me and say,

you have changed my son's life.

It makes it all worth it, and beyond.

You're finding those rillies and it really is,

you look at those parents and a lot of whom probably

had some experiences like you have

and just being able to show that young person

how special they are and that they have

a hugely bright future ahead of them.

And just to get the attention,

it's the draft day or the signing day

that maybe they're not accustomed to.

They're not used to that.

And it's just, I think any parent sees their kid

and when they have that light shined on them,

whether you take that so much to heart

and what you're doing is giving somebody

something to be very, very proud of.

And I just think, what a cool thing.

What just an awesome, awesome thing.

And again, I just give you all the credit in the world

for everything that you're doing.

And I hope to see this continue to grow

and to really have the word spread more and more

for those that might be interested in helping out

or wanting to get more information

about everything that you're doing.

What's the best avenue for them to do that?

It would definitely be to go to our website,

which is jumpstart-fund.org.

And we just have a form that says how to get,

it's basically how can I get involved?

And if you fill that out and share it with me,

I will get right back to you

because having supportive partners

that I can't do what I'm doing without partnerships, right?

At some point, I wanna be able to have an answer

to every student that comes up to me and ask for a job.

Like I think I may have mentioned it,

but I've had students say,

I wanna be an elevator mechanic.

I'm like, Crud, I don't have anyone

that offers jobs in that industry.

I gotta find one.

Partnerships are the only way I can do what I do, so.

And great people like the Fill Long Group

and so many others in Colorado.

Yes, yes, so many great ones out there supporting

what is truly an incredible mission.

I'm just so happy to have been able to meet you

and look forward to following this progress along.

I know for me, this was probably one of the more,

one of the more emotional podcasts.

It's funny because I think normally

things come very easy for me

in terms of coming up with questions and that kind of thing.

And this one was definitely harder,

but more so, a few different reasons because of it

is just because of the impact it's having.

And it just, it truly, it touched me.

I mean, it really, really did.

This is incredible work that you're doing

in honor of Riley.

And I hope word just keeps spreading

and it just keeps getting more and more successful.

It's just what an honor to Riley,

to everything that you're doing.

And for you to come on and talk about it,

I just can't tell you how much I appreciate that.

Again, I can't express how I truly heartfelt thank you

for having me, I really appreciate it.

My last question for you is.

Sure.

Your photos on the site are great.

I was looking through the,

I don't know if you take them or it just,

I was going through the ones on the auto draft day recap

and just the joy in the kids' faces

and it just a really, really good photography.

And then Riley's photo, I believe with the,

is that with the Senna jacket on and.

That's actually a Schumacher jacket.

It is, okay.

So Schumacher is right there behind Senna.

I mean, if Senna had been able to live longer and race longer,

I think he would have been like, yeah.

A giant.

Yeah, giant.

So is it close race between Schumacher and Senna for him?

But the Ferrari in that picture is our friend

who sells PivotDors.

Let us borrow it for his senior pictures.

Wow.

Yeah.

What a cool picture.

Yeah.

And the other pictures, just FYI,

we had a student come and take those pictures

and we paid them as an intern

to come and do pictures that day, so.

Very talented there as well.

Those pictures are top notch.

So I just, lastly, just thank you.

Keep doing what you're doing.

It's amazing work and we'll try to help spread the word

however we can.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

That wraps up another episode of Beyond the Wrench.

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You can also watch the video interviews

on Wrenchway's YouTube channel.

Speaking of Wrenchway, Beyond the Wrench

is managed and produced by the Wrenchway team.

Wrenchway is dedicated to promoting and improving careers

in the automotive, diesel, and collision industries.

In partnership with ASC,

we run the ASC Connects community

which empowers shops and dealerships

with reliable data, school connections,

and industry insights

while helping grow the future technician workforce.

You can learn more by visiting wrenchway.com.

Thank you so much for listening.

We'll see you next week.

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